Daffy - The Commando
Daffy - The Commando is a 1943 Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng. Plot A German commander, Von Vultur, gets a telefunken from the "Gestinko Gestapo", threatening him with his 'ka-rear' if he lets "Vun-More-Kommando" through. The telegram in translated English reads 'vun more kommando ...'. In the original, very broken German, it reads, "Dummy! A sauerkraut potato soup isn't eaten made with veal. Signed The Apfen of History." From left to right, the "Apes of Wrath" are Hitler, Hirohito, and Mussolini. The music playing is from Wagner's opera Das Rheingold. Hearing a plane overhead, he calls in a soldier, Schultz, whom he abuses by knocking him regularly over his helmet with a mallet. Schultz and Von Vultur go outside and use a searchlight to look for Daffy, who is floating down on a parachute, whilst singing "She Was Poor But She Was Honest" in a Cockney accent. After a quick "Put out those lights!" gets the lights out, allowing him to land unseen, Daffy uses his fingers to make shadow puppets and dancing chorus girls. When Von Vultur chases Daffy behind a curtain of asbestos, Daffy makes a stereotypical Japanese face, causing Von Vultur to run off frightened. Back at his bunker, there is a semi-nude photo of a woman on the wall in Von Vultur's bunker. Daffy addresses Von Vultur as "Liederkranz", after the smelly cheese, is presented with a bomb from Daffy, ticking down. Von Vultur hands the bomb off to Schultz, who is blown through the roof. When Schultz falls back, Daffy stops Von Vultur from hitting Schultz over the head with a mallet, and instead hits him. Von Vultur, pausing briefly to salute a skunk with "Heil Hitler!" chases Daffy to a telephone booth, where Daffy continues to make fun of Von Vultur. Von Vultur thinks he's talking to Schultz, but finds himself talking to operator Myrt from the Fibber McGee & Molly radio show. Daffy then jumps in a plane, narrowly avoiding being shot by 'a whole mess of Messerschmitts', referring to the Nazi Messerschmitt BF 109 light fighter aircraft, when he's shot down by Von Vultur (his plane literally being blown to pieces). Daffy then runs into a howitzer, and is shot out by Von Vultur. However, Daffy flies as a 'Human Cannonball' into Berlin, where (a largely rotoscoped) Hitler is making a speech to his people. Hitler's speech is nonsense: "Haben Sie nicht Liebe? ... alle zusammen ... Ach, du lieber. Mein Herr, Mein Pupkin, Mein Milch, Mein Heineken ..." (the music used in the background is similar to an organ grinder.) Daffy jumps up and whacks Hitler on the head with a mallet, causing Hitler to yell for Schultz, similar to Von Vultur. The Telephone Booth Scene A scene where Daffy is on a pay phone as Von Vultur is trying to get into the booth has Daffy speaking to him in German, while holding cue card-like signs with the dialogue translated for the audience (a classic example of "breaking the fourth wall"). In many public domain prints, the signs are illegible (due to the poor quality of the PD prints), but read as follows: Daffy 1: Kannst du nicht sehen diese telefunk ist busy? Bleiben sie ruhig! ("Can you not see this tele radio is busy? Stay calm!") Sign 1: ENGLISH TRANSLATION: "Can't you see this telephone is busy? Wait your turn!" Daffy 2: Bitte, mein herr, haben sie ein ein pfennigstück? ("Please, my lord, have they a penny a piece?") Danke schön.("Thank you.") Sign 2 TWO MORE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS: "Got a nickel, bud?"/"Thanks." Daffy 3: "It's all yours, Von Limburger!" Sign 3: GERMAN TRANSLATION: "Ich bin fertig mit der telefon, Herr Von Limburger." ("I'm done with the phone, Mr. Von Limburger.") When Von Vultur enters the phone booth, he attempts to contact Shultz, but instead gets an operator, "Ist dat you Myrt?" (Myrtle the Operator was the never-heard switchboard operator in the highly successful Fibber McGee radio show of that era. "Is that you Myrt?" was a popular catchphrase in the show, and subsequently, in many Warner Brothers cartoons, which took situations from radio dramas and comedies as their inspiration.) Availability * (1988) VHS, LaserDisc - Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs and Daffy: The Wartime Cartoons (unrestored) * (1992) LaserDisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 2, Side 8: The Art of Daffy (unrestored) * (2008) DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6, Disc 2 Notes * This short, as well as a few other Warner shorts, is in the public domain after United Artists (successor-in-interest to Associated Artists Productions) neglected to renew the copyright in time. * Although it is in the public domain, it is currently withheld from American TV packages due to stereotypes of Germans and propaganda in World War II. References Gallery Daffycommando4.jpg DaffyCommando2.jpg Daffycommando5.jpg Daffy_the_commando_screenshot.jpg Daffycommando1.jpg DaffyCommando3.jpg fef34c06474a09250986dffca3073167.png|Lobby Card Daffy_-_The_Commando_031_0001.jpg|Adolf Hitler is hit in the head by Daffy Duck in the end of the cartoon. Category:Daffy Duck Cartoons Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng Category:Wartime Shorts Category:Shorts Category:1943 Category:Public domain films Category:Looney Tunes Shorts Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Cartoons with layouts by Owen Fitzgerald Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Paul Julian Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons produced by Leon Schlesinger Category:Caricatures of real people Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package